Jimmy Carter in the Lions' Den

To the Editors:

Your cover story [Aug. 8] implied that U.S. foreign policy could succeed only if Carter adopted the ways and means of Nixon-Ford-Kissinger. In light of recent history, our friends and adversaries might have reason to question the honesty of this past policy.

A foreign policy based upon open negotiations, recognizing this country's basic ideal of human rights, is more honest to our beliefs. And it may be a good foreign policy for a world in need of moral leadership.

Charles B. Deane Jr.

Rockingham, N.C.

Jimmy Carter put himself in the lions' den and dragged Uncle Sam in too.

Ken Powers

Walnut, Ill.

Jimmy Carter, like Daniel, is a man of prayer and strong faith; he need not fear the lions.

(The Rev.) Lawrence E. Gidley

Newell S. Dak.

Critics of Carter's human rights stance glibly trace his "basic principles and values" back to a Southern Baptist Sunday school outlook. Actually, such moral basics are common to all men of all times; they are found not only in the Bible but in Hindu, Egyptian, Chinese, Norse, Babylonian and Greek texts.

So Carter's sense of morality is no more Southern Baptist than the sun outside my window is Pasadenan. Universal laws deserve universal recognition.

Ray Seldomridge

Pasadena, Calif.

Genes v. Golden Rule

Contrary to the impression left by the brief paragraph mentioning our views in your cover story on sociobiology [Aug. 1], we believe that the moral teachings found in the world's religions are historically developed cultural products, opposing the selfish tendencies which biological evolution builds into human nature and which are serious obstacles to social cooperation. The golden rule and love of neighbors are not gene-based tendencies in each of us, but are on the contrary socially evolved preachings designed to curb the gene-based greed for more than our share for ourselves, our children and subsequent progeny.

Donald T. Campbell, Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University

Evanston, Ill.

Ralph W. Burhoe, Editor Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science

Chicago

I have been quoted in TIME as part of the general wave of enthusiasm for sociobiology, but the quotes came from a discussion in which I also criticized and even ridiculed the new subfield. Its thought-provoking notions about behavior include some that are true, few that are novel, many that are trivial, and none that can substitute for the complex, laborious, difficult progress of the rest of behavioral and social science. Why do people always like it easy?

Melvin J. Konner, Associate Professor

Department of Anthropology, Harvard University,

Cambridge, Mass.

Holy Grounds

It would seem that with the billions we spend for defense, the Navy would not have to desecrate the holy grounds of Hawaii's Kahoolawe [Aug. 8] for their bombing practice. Let them sharpen their skills in the local bar on the popular electronic games.

The Ugly American still lives in the Navy, it seems.

Gus Sigwart

New York City

In all Polynesian cultures, an act of violence to the land is regarded as an outrage against the people of that land. That is why the Navy's use of Kahoolawe Island as a target has always provoked bitterness among Hawaiians, now resulting in open protest. Ancient battles were provoked by cutting down coconut trees, thus obligating the owners to do battle as much as if a kinsman had been assaulted.

In the context of Hawaiian culture, the U.S. has essentially declared war on the Hawaiian people by using Kahoolawe Island as a target for violence.

Herb Kawainui Kane

Captain Cook, Hawaii

The Hawaiian members of Protect Kahoolawe Ohana are no more representative of the Hawaiian people than the "smattering of white liberals" your correspondent mentioned. The movement, which apparently began as a publicity stunt to steal some of the American Indians' thunder, would be ridiculous were it not so tragic. The Ohana want to turn back the clock.

Why wait more than 30 years to decide that the barren, waterless island is "sacred"? And what would they do with it? Return to human sacrifices, beginning with the U.S. military?

Alan Williamson

Honolulu

As a native Hawaiian woman, I am heartened to see TIME magazine finally reporting the Hawaiian tragedy.

For too long we have been depicted as happy, contented natives of Aloha Land, eager to greet the next planeload of tourists.

Our children are now being taught Tourist Appreciation from the fourth grade on so that we natives may serve the visitor properly.

Moanikeala Akaka

Hilo, Hawaii

Sweden for the Swedes

In response to your article "Racial Time Bomb" [Aug. 8]: Swedes are naturally a very proud people. You might also call us an obstinate and even boring people, but we have with some help made our native country what it is today--a paradise.

I want to tell you that most Swedes have nothing against foreigners. But David Schwarz's calculation that by the year 2000 nearly a third of all Swedes will be foreign born is frightening. We want to keep our country to ourselves.

Immigration must be stopped. SWEDEN FOR THE SWEDES.

Lars Larsson

Ekeroe, Sweden

Your article about Swedish racism certainly points to a growing problem of Swedish society, but I cannot get rid of the idea that you merely project a great deal of your own problems concerning racial injustice onto a country in which the individual has long enjoyed far more freedom, tolerance and humaneness than in your own.

Joachim Grau

Hamburg, West Germany

Being Swedish born and now living in Hawaii, "the great melting pot of the Pacific," I find it unthinkable that Swedes would be racists by nature. The migrants from southern Europe and the Middle East who settled in Sweden are not resented because of their coloring. They are resented, even hated, for their way of living off welfare, for which the home-grown Swede is highly taxed. The people you refer to as irresponsible, riotous hooligans are merely young patriots who wish to keep Sweden Swedish, and for this they should not be rebuked. This is not being racist.

Leonard Clairmont

Honolulu

Ten or twelve years ago, I spent three weeks in Sweden and found it to be a land of all chiefs and no Indians. All their "menial labor" was done by foreigners. Anyone could see that the country was headed for trouble.

I never saw a Swedish waiter, bus driver or street sweeper; they were all Iranians, blacks, Lebanese and Greeks. I asked one of my guides about this, and she replied in amazement, "No one wants to do these things when the government will pay you to go to school. I'm studying for an advanced degree now."

If Swedes won't do the work in their own country, it's reasonable to assume that people who need jobs will enter the country to do them.

(Mrs.) Gail Pinson

San Francisco

A Rubens in the Attic

Having read your interesting article on Rubens [Aug. 1], I wondered if you might be interested in an episode in the history of one of his priceless paintings.

At the beginning of this century a friend of my grandfather's, the painter Count Harrach, paid a visit to Briese, our 18th century home in Silesia (now western Poland), and took a look at the many old paintings that generations of art-loving ancestors had collected there. In the course of his research he also got to the attic, where he found two pieces of painted timber; a third was found in a greenhouse, with a turkey hatching on it.

Harrach, suspecting that he had made a discovery, had the dusty pieces sent to the Duesseldorf Art Academy, where it was confirmed that indeed it was a painting by Rubens, done about 1609 and depicting the Holy Family, with two little boys, Christ and Saint John, playing with a dove.

The picture was later sold to a Dutch art dealer, who, my father remembers, sent it with the first zeppelin crossing the Atlantic to the U.S., where it was sold again.

Carl Christian Graf von Kospoth

Bad Hamburg, West Germany

Rape of the Beatles

Beatlemania [Aug. 8] is a rape of the Beatles. The show is a disgusting moneymaking perversion of what the Beatles have meant to me. I would never see such trash. The Beatles can only be remembered and cherished by listening to their music, watching their films and retaining memories of having lived under their influence.

James N. Thomson

Hamden, Conn.

Working to the Grave

Pushing the retirement age to 70 [Aug. 8] is nothing but a scheme to bail out the Social Security system and various pension funds that have been mismanaged and are in trouble. As the average American lives to about 70, a very substantial part of our population would never experience retirement. You cite unusual individuals like Margaret Mead and Arthur Fiedler as examples of how enjoyable work can be in old age. Most citizens who work in factories, mines, stores and offices may not find their jobs quite so exhilarating.

Let's face it. As a nation we have failed to provide decent retirement conditions, so some of our leaders now claim that retirement is bad for our health, and we should go on working right up to the grave.

Rudolf Windmuller

Wayne, N.J.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.